An 11th hour rescue of Redcar steelworkers is being considered this weekend, according to reports in a national newspaper.

Coalminer Hargreaves Services is weighing up a deal which would still see the Teesside blast furnace closed - but Hargreaves would keep it maintained with a view to restarting it when steel prices recover.

Industry sources cautioned yesterday that the odds were stacked against a rescue, with a final decision likely this afternoon. The Thai owner, Sahaviriya Steel Industries (SSI), put the plant into liquidation on Friday, days after announcing 1,700 of the 2,000 staff would be axed.

PwC, the accountant, is advising the official receiver on how best to dispose of the works.

It is understood that Hargreaves, which has been in talks to take over the plant for several weeks, had hoped it would be put into administration, a different insolvency process that gives businesses more chance of staying operational.

The Redcar plant, which has one of Britain’s last remaining blast furnaces, has been hammered by sinking steel prices and a glut of Chinese exports since SSI bought it in 2011 from Indian steel giant Tata.

The plant is understood to have just enough coke and coal to keep going until tomorrow, but needs a reprieve from three Thai banks that are owed hundreds of millions of pounds after bankrolling the plant.

The coking oven will collapse if it runs out of fuel.

Durham-based Hargreaves - a listed coalmining, logistics and bulk importing company - has spent more than a month studying takeover plans for Redcar, which has a deep-water port.

On Friday, the Government announced an £80m support and retraining package for redundant staff, but it has said EU state aid rules mean it cannot step in to rescue the plant.